Questions tagged [allusions]
Questions about references to other works, external incidents, etc. in literature. Use this tag with the relevant author and work tags if applicable.
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Which saying or proverb is Stendhal referring to in this passage from "Le rouge et le noir"?
The following passage from chapter XVI of Book I of the novel Le rouge et le noir (The Red and the Black) by Stendhal refers to "un dicton de province", that is, at some kind of saying or ...
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What does the expression "Mignon country" refer to in Elsschot's "Cheese"?
I'm reading Willem Elsschot's novel Cheese in a French translation by Xavier Hanotte. In chapter 3, I have found an expression that I believe it can be translated as "Mignon country" (...
- 2,739
2
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0
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Who is “very fond of bearing false witness” in Byron’s “Don Juan”?
Here’s a stanza from canto I of Byron’s Don Juan, published in 1819. The narrator has been surveying the talents (or lack thereof) of his fellow-poets, and comments:
Thou shalt not covet Mr. Sotheby’...
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Does "Two legs good, two legs bad" from "Smiley's People" allude to George Orwell's "Animal Farm"?
From John Le Carre's Smiley's People:
Returning to bed, he opened a copy of Cobbett’s Rural Rides and tried to read it while he loosely pondered, among other weighty matters, his sense of civitas and ...
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What are these allusions to other poems in Louis MacNeice's poem "The Gardener"
Louis MacNeice's poem "The Gardener" (1939) contains the lines:
He would talk to amuse the children,
Or the robin waiting for worms
Perched on the handle of the spade;
Would remember ...
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8
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2
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What is a Pillycoddian gesture?
From "Jo's Boys," by Louisa May Alcott...
'A true woman, and a born sailor's wife! You are a happy man, Emil, and I'm sure this trip will be a prosperous one,' cried Mrs Jo, delighted with ...
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What are "the feelings of an Emma towards her Henry"?
In Jane Austen's Persuasion, when Louisa has her accident, and her friends and family are figuring out who's going to stay with her, we have this quote from Anne:
She endeavoured to be composed, and ...
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Is the story of Jill and Eustace meant to evoke that of Cain and Abel?
Towards the beginning of The Silver Chair, Eustace and Jill get into a little fight which culminates in Eustace falling off the cliff to his apparent death.
“What are you doing, Pole? Come back — ...
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3
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2
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Meaning of "Rustum" in Trollope's "Orley Farm"
Trollope in Orley Farm refers to "the wisest Rustums of the law." Who was the original Rustum?
He had left that congress, though the wisest Rustums of the law from all the civilized ...
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Reference to Novalis in Ghérasim Luca's poem "La Poésie Pratique"
Ghérasim Luca's poem "La Poésie Pratique" / "Practical Poetry" contains the following lines:
En pratiquant le bouche à bouche de mot à mot
de « feu » le mort à « feu » vif
d' « ...
2
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1
answer
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Who are the 'sweet Saterian dames'?
I came across a beautiful (and subtly extremely rude!) poem called 'A Present to a Lady' the other day, penned by that most prolific of poets, Anonymous. I think I understand all the references - ...
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4
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1
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Which poet explained 'why sweet Hesper glows'?
I came across a rather good poem by Michael Field (actually a pseudonym for an incestuous aunt-and-niece literary double act) the other day, which begins 'Adown the Lesbian vales'. It's just a bit too ...
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1
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'Wild-bee hours' and 'wild-parrot days' in Sarojini Naidu's "A Rajput Love Song"
Sarojini Naidu's poem A Rajput Love Song has the stanza:
Haste, O wild-bee hours, to the gardens of the sunset!
Fly, wild-parrot day, to the orchards of the west!
Come, O tender night, with your ...
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5
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1
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What is the "love-god's string" in Sarojini Naidu's "A Song in Spring"?
Sarojini Naidu's "A Song in Spring" begins like this:
Wild bees that rifle the mango blossom,
Set free awhile from the love-god's string,
Wild birds that sway in the citron branches,
Drunk ...
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4
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To what Mrs. Partingtons and to what martyrs of Chicago does Tucker allude in the first chapter of 'Individual Liberty'?
Benjamin Tucker writes in the first chapter, page 15, of Individual Liberty:
And it is an ideal that can be as little advanced by
the forcible expropriation recommended by John Most and
Prince ...
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